CITO

This is International CITO weekend for us geocachers. CITO stands for "Cache In, Trash Out" (the idea being that while we're geocaching in public areas we also pick up trash) and today Southern Man will join some fellow 'cachers from a semi-nearby city (as it turns out, the same semi-nearby city in which Southern Daughter lives with her mother, which will become relevant later in this post) to clean up an area park. It was a three-hour drive (well, with one hour in reserve for geocaching) so Southern Man was on the road before dawn...

Did we mention that there would be geocaching along the way? One was guarded by this magnificent buffalo.

The workers gather...

The trash accumulates...

Done! Southern Man and his yellow trash picker are on the far right. Photo by TAG.

The park service had us work in a relatively small area that needed a lot of tree trimming and brush clearing and had accumulated a lot of metal junk (air conditioners stripped of their copper and that sort of thing). A local actually hauled all of the ACs away.

It didn't look anything like this when we started...photo by TAG.

We then had a magnificent potluck meal and then several of us went after the various geocaches in the park.

Geocacher "bearbrew" near a cache hidden in the rocks.

Southern Man then ventured on into town for a shower at the gym and more geocaching...

One was near this lighthouse. Why a city in landlocked Southern State needs a lighthouse, Southern Man does not know.

And then the main event of the evening was to see Southern Daughter perform in the community theater production of "A Little Princess."

Southern Daughter with two of her castmates. Flowers by Southern Man.

And that was the end of a very long and very fun day that, sadly, ended with taking Southern Daughter to her mother's house and hugging her goodbye and then getting back on the road for the long drive home...